Involving

How to spell involving

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce involving

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does involving mean?

1. verbIncluding or requiring something or someone as a necessary part of an activity or situation.

Involving in a sentence

• The new role is a project involving three different departments.

• Any plan involving extra spending must be approved by the board.

Where does involving come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb involve, which English took from the Latin involvere, meaning 'to roll into', 'to wrap up', or 'to envelop'. That Latin verb was built from in- 'in, into' and volvere 'to roll' or 'to turn', the same root that gives us 'revolve', 'evolve', and 'volume' (originally a rolled-up scroll). When the word reached English through Old French in the 1300s, it first carried the literal sense of wrapping or enfolding something, and only later did it settle into the modern figurative meaning of drawing a person or thing into an affair or activity. The hidden 'v' followed by the consonant cluster 'lv' is what trips writers up, so it helps to picture the rolling 'volvere' root sitting at the centre of the word.

How the word is built

• in- (in, into)
• volv (to roll, from Latin volvere)
• -ing (present participle/adjective suffix)